Looking for a wire :)

sebphoto

Hi,
Sorry for maybe silly question, but i'm not sure where can I get at least 20m of 1mm wire in Dublin or online? I would like to use it as wire antenna.

martinedwards

ebay.

I use a roll of insulated car electical wire along with a 4:1 balun for a long wire which works a treat on 17m.

worked pretty much all of Europe yesterday

sebphoto

martinedwards wrote: »

ebay.

I use a roll of insulated car electical wire along with a 4:1 balun for a long wire which works a treat on 17m.

worked pretty much all of Europe yesterday

acutally i was hoping to get such cable in person in some dyi store, but i'm not that familiar with those stores

anyways don't know why i didn't took ebay into consideration
cheers

martinsvi

B&Q's have some sort of selection for cables

watty

B&Q very expensive for cable. Maybe 5m is cost of a reel!
Buy a reel of twin bell wire from any electrical wholesale and short the wires at both ends, or at a minimum the Radio end.

Even metal cored €3 Tesco washing line can work.

Any kind of wire really, and insulation just stops it corroding.

PauloMN

Is there any requirement as to the minimum thickness of wire when used for a transmitting HF antenna? I wouldn't be talking about using an amp, just something that would be suitable for 100W straight from a typical HF radio. Would like to use something as discreet as possible. For example, could the twin bell wire mentioned above be separated to make thinner legs for a dipole? How thin can you go before performance becomes an issue?

sebphoto

Paulo check this and / or this.

martinedwards

As far as I remember I've seen Cobwebb Plans using bell wire......